Algae! How Do I Treat? Want to SLAM But Can't Find Chlorine!

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amityeric

amityeric

Active member
Jul 2, 2021
32
Vancouver, WA
Pool Size
17415
Surface
Vinyl
Hi all.

I live in Vancouver, WA. I have been using liquid chlorine for the second half of the summer after my CYA got up to appropriate levels. I slacked for a week and my pool is now GREEN. Dang.

I want to SLAM the pool but can't find the liquid chlorine. I looked at Lowe's, Wal-Mart, Target, Freddies . . . everywhere. Can't find what I'm looking for. And it's expensive. I found THIS stuff (HTH Shock Treatment - multi purpose) . . . should I buy it and use it? Any advice here? I don't want to wait another day! I want to get ON IT. Thanks and I love this place.

If I buy this stuff, it's $8 per bag and treats 10,000 ft2 but I wouldn't know how much to add, for how long, etc. etc. UGH. I'm so irritated with myself.


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No, please do not use any granular or solid puck type product.
You want liquid chlorine, even plain unscented, non-Clorox type bleach will work. Pool stores ought to sell "Liquid Chlorine" or they can call it "Liquid Shock". Those are the only products to use for a SLAM as they add nothing more than chlorine to the pool at this time.

Maddie 🇮🇹
 
After reading all this, I'm more confused than ever. I have PoolMath, but not sure how to use it. I want to start the process, but simply don't know how much chlorine to add or how high to keep the levels. Can I get some step-by-step instructions? I've read several articles on this site, but still can't seem to figure out what I need to do. Confused and my pool is GREEEEEEN. I have six gallons of 10% chlorine. I see what YippeeSkippee said to jot down, but why? 22oz of 10% liquid chlorine=1ppm FC? Wouldn't it make a difference how much water was in the pool to make that statement true?

Anyway, I just need to figure out how much chlorine to add then I can get started. But now I realized after testing my PH that it's too high! It's like 7.8. So I need to figure out how to get that down. Everything went to heck SO FAST.
 
Last edited:
Ok, lets try this old version of PoolMath- PoolMath

Do these steps:
1) fill out the pool volume at the top in gallons
2) Go to the bottom and enter in these parameters- "Vinyl" "TroubleFreePool" and "Bleach"
3) Enter your test values in the left hand column
4) Enter desired levels in right hand column
5) roll over chem level and it will give you how much. The Suggested levels shown are not SLAM levels

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OK thanks so much Everyone. I started at 7PM on Saturday night. So now it's about 36 hours so far. My CYA is 35. My pool gallons are about 17,300, and so I'm trying to keep the chlorine levels about 15 or so (based on the chart). I've been a little high on most of my tests (around 15-20). My PH is a little high (about 7.4). Hopefully that doesn't affect things too much. I have been skimming the pool a couple times each day and running my robot. I've also scrubbed the sides manually. After work today I will run the robot again and scrub again. I've taken the ladder out. It wasn't very green at all. I didn't the algae much time to attach to anything. I'm a little worried about the water that was INSIDE the ladder. I've drained it all and dried it all out but can algae live without water over the winter? Should I bleach the ladder somehow? Thanks again!!!!!!
 

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A pH of 7.4 is ideal. Brushing the pool daily is important to disrupt any biofilm covering algae. Its like a film encapsulating the algae to protect it from chlorine (who says little lifeforms aren't smart??).
As to the stairs they certainly can harbor hidden algae. If you can find some holes to inject chlorinated water into and let sit that can help.
How about a Skimmer? If you have one check behind the weir door....that's a place for algae to hide.

Maddie :flower:
 
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